One of the many club tasks that come up every year is the nomination and election of club officers. For the most part being a club officer is a thankless task that goes unrewarded and is usually remembered as a job most club members don't want to repeat. We all know clubs need officers to perform tasks to keep club functions on track. Without club officers it would be just a bunch of members running around doing what they think is best. Some would say even with club officers there are a few members that try to become a part time "chief".

When the topic of being an officer of a club comes up in a conversation, one of the comments is, "Only a insane person would work for free to be a club officer". This comment leads to the question of why such a bad report? For those who have been an officer of a club the answer is simple - a sane person has to put up with a lot of crap to get anything done. It seems to be in every club there are some members who think they know better and like to voice their opinions, but never throw their hats into the ring to serve as an officer. To make matters worse, they try to undermine club officer/s with their hidden agenda!

For those individuals who sincerely do want to be the best club officer they can be, hats off to you! There are many who spend countless hours of their time for free to provide service to their club without looking for much in return. The only thing they want is acknowledgement of the sacrifice of their time. They toil away doing the best they can, and at times only get chastised.

So, the next time elections of club officers come up, think long and hard about the persons who want officers. Have they put in time and effort for the club, and are willing to donate more? Have they provided a service to the club when no others would do so? Or are they just tooting their own horn so they can feel better? For the most part, a person's true colors are easy to see in how they talk and treat others when no one is watching. _/)

It is possible to change boat balance by changing sail shape. A flatter mainsail, sheeted in tight will generate windward helm, but less power, so we do not want to achieve balance that way. Bob Sterne has made an excellent tape titled "Rig and Sail Tuning". Some of his thoughts on the subject follow:

• Most all sailboats carry some aft mast rake going to windward. Downwind, forward mast rake increases performance by promoting airflow up the sail.

• A tight forestay helps jib performance (prevents panting).

• Too much backstay tension spoils the mainsail shape by bending the mast, especially on fractional rigs.

• Bob recommends 10-12% camber and maximum draft at 40% aft.

• Sheet the main with the boom pointing to the corner of the transom and the jib club pointing to the chainplates (inside the chainplates for wider boats).

• Use a topping lift to control the shape of the jib leech and a weight on the jib club to assist in winging the jib going downwind. He recommends moderate twist in the upper main and jib.

• Other suggestions include jumpers to hold the mast straight and a jack wire to mount the mainsail on. _/)

Timber Plank on Shadows
Part 4

The supplies needed are light body putty, glazing putty, see Picture 1.

Bow and stern has had trimmed over lapping wood removed. Overlapping wood has been removed and all the excess glue and sharp edges are gone. Do NOT try to sand the hull smooth of all voids, see Picture 2.

Mix body putty in small batches. Do not put a heavy coat of putty, cover the whole hull. Then sand hull down with #80 grit sandpaper, see Picture 4. There will be voids in the hull. Mix more body putty and fill in voids, see Picture 5. Sand down smooth. With hand and eye check hull smoothness all for symmetry. Mark any place that has small voids. Using glazing putty, fill in voids. Sand down with fine foam sanding block. It will then look like Picture 7. _/)

Well as fast as it began, it ended. Another season of racing is over and we all look forward to hiding in our houses in the air conditioning. For some of us it means long nights in the garage working on new boats and reconditioning boats for the next season or even traveling to races in other parts of the country.

The racing this past year was fantastic to say the least. The speeds from all the classes seemed to be up from previous seasons and the driving has improved equally. As I reflect back on some of the highlights I can’t help but smile. After all we’re playing with toy boats! As the racing progressed so did the aggressiveness of the drivers, in cracker box Dennis battled tooth and nail with Doug Nolte for just about every finish. In N-2 mono the competition is getting fierce and there were no point’s sweeps this year, it was anybody’s race in any given heat. Limited Sport Hydro was no different than C-box or N-2, hard racing with nobody giving an inch to the other drivers. Many heats of LSH saw Pat McDonald racing deck to deck with David Newland and myself for the lead or finish. To listen to the crowd behind us was great too; to hear Doug say, "That was the best race ever" was pretty cool. And it just seemed to continue the whole season for all the classes.

After 6 points series races a big congratulations goes out to all the racers and to the winners of the classes. Here are your winners:

Special congratulations goes out to Doug Nolte who was awarded the driver of the year award.

Another memorable point in the season was when Dan Proulx from the Edina boat club came to show us his skills. Dan was a considerable force on the water and his boats were set up perfectly. The heats with Dan were close and my boats have some of Dan’s paint on them to prove it.

For next season we are looking at a few races in Scottsdale. This will not only help out the local nitro club there, but give us a change. With this in mind, the venue is larger and with the support of the city of Scottsdale we can consider hosting a race that racers will travel to. This will be a chance to meet racers from around the country and for those guys, the chance to get some boats in the water while their local water is frozen.

Other changes for next season include a scheduling change of fast electric racing to the first Saturday of the month instead of the third. This will help the scale boaters. The MMYC board should have the schedule for next season finished soon.

Hope everyone has a safe fun summer and we’ll see you next season. I’ll try to keep the articles coming, if there is a subject you would like to see in the fast electric column shoot me an e-mail at Junglepeej@qwest.net. _/)

by Ray Agee

Vacuform Tugs a good way to get into Scale Getting into scale model boating can be done in may different ways today.

One is buy a kit of all wood or fiberglass/wood combination. The only thing bad about scale models is that they can be time consuming and in some cases, expensive.

This is because most kits don't come with motors or drivelines. This where it can get to be expensive or beyond your abilities. What you might be looking for might be right around the corner.

Vac-U-Boat has the answer for a beginner or an advanced boater who wants to have some fun. Among their products are tug hulls, push boats and even Radio control ducks (the feathered kind). The tug hulls can be modified into pleasure boats, fireboats, etc.

The Vac-U-Tug Jr. is 22.5 inches in length with a 7-inch beam. It has a styrene hull, deck and superstructure. Already mounted is a motor and driveline including the prop. The price is the shocker ... $74.95!

Another is the Vac-U-Cam boat. This boat's deck is modeled to carry a still or video cam for close up on the water boat action. These boats also can be configured for rescue boat duty negating the need for a club rowboat. This one runs $79.95 and the kits come with fantastic sets of plans with over 100 photos.

If you really want to have fun, the company offers four different ducks to flirt with local pond feathered friends. My son, then 14, built a Mallard back in 1979 and had a ball showing off to unsuspecting people on the shore. Luckily, he modeled a drake!

Take a good look at their website at www.Vac-U-Boat.com. These kits are inexpensive enough to make them good first models for your kids too, but, can be styled and fabricated to make great models for Dad too!

The U-Boats are here ...

Revell's 1/72 scale Type VII U-Boat finally hit US hobby shops in April. This is a fantastic kit and has already been modified in Germany as a fully operational diving model.

PE (photo etch) parts and deck are in development by several after market manufacturers and will help you to create a fantastic model be it operational static. In addition, Dave Manley of San Diego's Small World Models is in the process of developing a WTC (watertight compartment) kit that will help you get into the exciting world of underwater flight. _/)

Arizona Model Yachting ...  A History

So we now had three clubs and I tried to get inter club racing going with little success. Frankly there were people who were against any type of mutual enjoyment. Too bad because I think it could have been a good idea. The 36/600 was growing in popularity and then someone came up with the "One Meter" which to me was stupid. Less than 3 inches different in length it did nothing more than split up the people sailing in either class and gained nothing in knowledge. Bob Kroft liked development class racing. He was a good engineer and understood that it took to make a sail boats go fast. He designed some very good boats both in the M Class and in the new One Meter and 36/600 Class. His X-Boat won every regatta he entered both here and in San Diego.

Bob really was the guy who started the thin narrow haul design. He told me one evening, "were building way too heavy we got to design narrow and light" Of course he was right. About then Swede Johnson and a couple others got into narrow and lighter designs and boats changed faster than underwear. The cheep method of balsa planked hulls fiber glassed over took off A person could build a haul in a weekend. I know I did it twice. I tried a "scow" type haul. Didn't work too much drag. Kroft tried a swing balance weight which shifted to windward to offset the small light keel bulb. Worked great, but never took off (Against AMYA Rules?)

The N-12-M Class popularity dropped and they stopped sailing them in San Diego. They disappeared at Copperstate and only the Tillerman fleet remained I sold my boat to Ray Agee. There were only four N-12s in our club at the time and our activity was heavy in the M-Class and 36/600s. A lot of the new sailors wanted to sail in the development classes.

As I said I had always been in favor of a one design class. A couple of guys joined our club who lived in Sun Lakes. Our club had just made plans to build a new one design class. I had finally got other guys interested. The boat we selected was a One Meter design which we got via Bob Debow in San Diego. Allen Young who belonged to the Copperstate club made the mold and we got every haul from him for $50 each. All he did was lay up the haul, I built the rudders and keels and put on the decks which were 1/32 FG purchased in 2' by 4' panels. We named it the Arrow which made the sail emblem read the same from both sides. Five of us drew up the rules and measurements and we each built a boat. When completed we measured and weighted each one and adjusted the rules accordingly. The Arrow OD Class was born. 8 pounds min. weight, 600 inches, 12 inch fin plus a few other rules.

The Arrow was a great boat. Nothing special in looks but it sailed well, it would go to weather quite fast with a neutral rudder. Best of all the OD Class idea had caught on. The Sun Lakes boys formed a club and made it an "Arrow" Club. My son Tim and I began to build boats. The Arizona (big boats) Yacht Club members found out about us thru the Kroff's and they wanted boats. Within a year we had 40 boats sailing. In all there were over 100 Arrows built over a period of 4 or 5 years. Tim and I built 65 selling them "ready to sail" for $500. We never asked AMYA for sanction because we felt every time a new class comes along someone wants to change it or add to the rules.

None of that for us, the Arrow was a great boat just as it was. It was about this same time, when Futaba came out with the sail servo which was perfect for One Meters and 36/600 size boats. It became standard equipment on all arrows.

In 1984, or a whim, I bought my second N-12-M from Swede Johnson, Boat #111. (I had asked him where I could find a 12 and he said he would sell his to me on one condition, That if I ever sell it he gets first chance. I gave him $150. Three years later he bought it back for $150. What a guy!) That same year sailing at the Rio Salado pond I won the ACCR against 18 very good skippers from San Deigo and L.A. as well as the local guys. Winning an ACCR Regatta is maybe the highlight of model yacht racing especially if the entries are good skippers.

The 36/600 class began to get more popular due to the fact that the development in the M Class had chased away so many skippers. I got a 36 called the "Scampy" and for about 5 years had a lot of fun with it. Best of all it was a contender. It wasn't the fastest boat on the pond but I still managed to win regattas The years of 1984 and 1985 were crazy with new designs and ideas, radios and equipment. Carbon Fiber came along and boats got thinner and lighter. Bob Kroft used CF on everything. A layer on 1/4 inch balsa made a great radio board.

Let me back up just a bit. You have to understand that early on a M Class boats had a 8 to 9 lb. bulb. They were usually thick FG hauls and often l/8 inch plywood decks. A boat could weigh 12 or 13 1bs. As the class suddenly began to change design they became lighter. Longer fins, lighter bulbs, Mylar decks, carbon fiber everything. Weights dropped to well under 10 pounds.

The 36/600 boats had four or five pound bulbs then so an 81b boat was normal. This too changed. Swede Johnson was building with carbon fiber and of course all the masts were now CF. Even in the 36/600 class things were changing and it would soon be as bad as the M Class in my opinion. The really sad part was a guy would come along and shell out several hundred dollars only to find his boat out dated with in a few weeks time. As a matter of fact membership dropped at Copperstate and they quit racing "M"s for a time and we all figured it was because of that.

The Baldachinos got involved in fast electric boats and didn't sail too much. Ray Agee started a Scale Electric club at Kiwanis Park in Tempe, and a guy named Jim Mercer came along and started the Mesa Model Yacht Club at Dobson Ranch. Years before we had checked out the Dobson site and found it had crazy wind or no wind which is still the case today. I told Mercer they were welcome to sail at our pond but he wanted a club with lots of rules and the problems that come with that. He got just what he wanted. The best thing about the Rio Salado pond was the open area to the west. Nothing to block the wind.

Around 1992 I began to tire of the sailing. I had won more regattas than I cared to count, and boxes of trophies. I had one ACCR to my credit and I was just plain tired of it all. I didn't mention the fact that three of those years I had been the AMYA Editor putting out 13 issues. My wife and I had a travel trailer and wanted to do some traveling and camping. That meant weekends, so I told everyone that I would no longer lead. They had to pick someone else to make up schedules and work sheets because I wouldn't be there. The Krofts had quit sailing, Shumate had quit and started racing cars. Club membership had died off. I walked away and the Rio Salado club dried up. Too bad, it was great fun while it lasted. By the way that great little pond is still there and is just the same as always.

In 2003 I thought I'd check out the model yachting scene. A lot has changed but a lot is the same. Namely bickering between individuals and clubs. I bought a one design kit boat called the Victoria. Very popular but not the best designed boat on the pond. Bill Cropper had an old M he got from Ray Agee. So we teamed up to sail and race it. Meantime were both into scale electric which is a fun thing in the building. There are new faces a lot of the old boys have gone to the farm. There are and Tempe Town Lake. (Bill Cropper and I have pledged not to run for any office) I am happy to see these clubs continue with leaders like Jerry Muridge, Dennis Desprois, Charlie Ellis, and Craig Mackey. _/)

From time to time MYR News will include photos of model boats that are being enjoyed in local events. We hope you enjoy the photos as much as we do when we see them on the water. _/)